Saturday, June 09, 2007

CoCreating CSR - Working Assets has been doing it for years -- asking its customers to tell them what they care about and then putting the funds behind the cause. It's a great idea (I unsuccessfully pitched a similar idea to an unnamed client a year or so ago) and something that American Express is currently undertaking through The Members Project. If you are a Cardmember, you've got eight days to weigh in with your idea for what "will do some good for our world." On July 3, an "expert panel" will pick the top 50 ideas and then throw it back out to members to vote on the best, which will receive up to $5 million in funding. Cause related marketing -- and corporate social responsibility -- should be in line with your customers' values (as well as your core brand values), so why not just ask them?

No Thank YouTube - YouTube is launching in China, but like the comments generated on the Mashable post sharing the news suggest, Western companies need to do more than provide translation -- and acknowledge that there is already a thriving world of homegrown web 2.0 sites that are doing fine without them, thank you very much.

Global Mobile - The world's top mobile web users live in the UK, the U.S., South Africa, India and Indonesia (via 901am).

If You Threw a Party and No One Came - MiGrito, the bilingual (Spanish/English) social network, has launched Tu Grito 2008 to allow presidential candidates to communicate with members. Unfortunately, so far, only Hillary Clinton has bothered to create a profile. Wait, I take that back. George Phillies has created a profile as well. But can someone tell me who Phillies is, please?

Putting Good Will in the Bank for a Rainy (Snowy) Day - Former CEO Dave Neeleman may be out of a job, but Jet Blue is still flying high. Despite the spanking the airline received earlier in the year when they left customers stranded on tarmacs in the name of weather delays, Consumer Reports says the company is still considered to be one of the best for customer service. As Spike at Brains on Fire points out, companies that start out with a good rep -- but encounter a little turbulence -- can pull themselves out of it if they continue to rely on their reputation for honesty and transparency and putting the customer first.